Saturday, January 5, 2013

Dear friends who can't tolerate anyone bringing up gun control: You're not going to intimidate me with your !!!!s, ????s, WORDS IN ALL CAPS, namecalling, and threats to unfriend.

I am going to speak my mind regardless of your protestations.
I just wish you loved the First Amendment as much as your reading of the Second Amendment. Instead trying to bully people into submission, let us speak freely.

Most people aren't calling for a ban on guns contrary to your knee-jerk reactions. We want better regulations on something that is already regulated. We just want improvements. To quote my friend Jim Sanches, there's a difference between regulating and banning.
Respect that America needs to talk about this massacre considering many factors including gun control. So, stop making wild accusations, calling people morons, and trying to shut down discussion.

In a fight to bring down the crime rate in Mexico’s capital city,
police have destroyed thousands of toy guns to stop them from becoming a
real threat on the streets.

Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera announced that officials
estimate at least three of every 10 violent crimes in Mexico City are
carried out with a real-looking toy gun. He said this was enough
justification to destroy the seven thousand replica weapons.

Shops
bore the brunt of the government's decision as toy items were seized by
the police in the capital and the surrounding state. Sunday is Three
Kings Day, when Mexican children receive holiday gifts. Mexico has strict laws on gun ownership that require toy weapons be made of transparent or colored plastic.

The claim that the AWB bans guns based on cosmetic features is left over rhetoric from the last time. The new ban is so much more extensive and names so many more guns specifically that it's just not true.

This is a classic pro-gun trick, exaggerate or distort what the opposition says and then argue against it as if they really did say it. You can see it on this very blog all the time. The gun-rights folks take their cue from the NRA.

Friday, January 4, 2013

A South Carolina man has been charged in connection
with the death of his eight-year-old son, whom he accidentally shot on
Sunday night.

The State Law Enforcement Division has charged
30-year-old Justin Brueger of Bennettsville with unlawful conduct
toward a child for the December 30 shooting death of 8-year-old Easton Brueger.
Police claim Justin was cleaning his rifle when it accidentally
discharged, hitting Easton in the stomach. The boy later died of his
injuries at a local hospital.

According to the State Police warrant, Justin placed his son at
"unreasonable risk of harm" by pointing the weapon in the boy's
direction while cleaning it.
"I want to say I'm very sorry to my son," a distraught Brueger told the court at his arraignment on Wednesday.

Judge Robert Stanton placed Brueger on a $10,000 personal recognizance
bond and ordered all guns removed from his Fayetteville Avenue home. He
was also ordered to stay away from Easton's mother and her family.

That's the proper handling of an accidental shooting.What's your opinion?

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office was not notified that interim
Fayetteville Police Chief Katherine Bryant had shot herself in the hand
until a day after the Dec. 26 incident, a sheriff's spokeswoman said
Thursday.

Bryant was treated at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. Under state
law, the hospital is required to report every case involving a shooting
to the convening police or sheriff's authority.

That didn't happen, said Debbie Tanna, the sheriff's spokeswoman.
Instead, Tanna said, Bryant reported the shooting herself more than 24
hours later. Tanna said a sheriff's investigation determined that hospital
officials didn't report the case because another police officer was with
Bryant at the hospital, and they thought the officer was making the
report.Police reported earlier that Bryant was putting an older-model
handgun back in storage when it discharged. The bullet struck Bryant on
the ring finger of her left hand. The wound required surgery, but Bryant
has returned to work.

It's difficult to tell if a real attempt to cover it up took place. But, what's clear is the acting police chief is too irresponsible to be trusted with firearms. Is that too severe?

The National Rifle Association claims on its website to be the
largest pro-hunting organization in the world. As a hunter, not to
mention as a human being, the NRA couldn’t represent me less.

The NRA isn’t for hunters any more than AAA is for bicyclists. Sure,
some hunters are NRA members, but first and foremost the NRA serves gun
fetishists and the firearms industry. (fetish: 1. An inanimate object
worshiped for its supposed magical powers or because it is considered to
be inhabited by a spirit. 2. A course of action to which one has an
excessive and irrational commitment.)

In 2011, nearly 14 million Americans hunted, while NRA members number about four million–fewer than half of whom actually hunt.

When you consider that there are about 100 million gun owners altogether, it seems the NRA doesn't represent anybody, except as the article said, the true gun nuts and the firearms industry.

“The only thing that can stop a bad person with a gun is a good
person with a gun.” No one is better than the National Rifle Association
at coming up with simple canards designed to mislead the public to a
bizarre result. We’ll soon see how many Americans are gullible enough to
buy it.

Even though the NRA would like that simple ditty to be the last word,
just think about the unintended consequences. When I take my
grandchildren up on the boardwalk to go on the merry-go-round it would
not make me feel safer knowing all the adults in the crowd were packing
guns. Even good people lose their tempers. Are you likely to have more
violence or less if lethal force were just a pocket away?

The other fear gun worshipers use to separate you from your good
sense is to create a dangerous threat to something you highly value like
an “attack on the Constitution.” If the Second Amendment were strictly
interpreted, the only ones with a constitutionally protected right to a
firearm would be those serving in the National Guard (today’s “well
regulated Militia” that the second amendment plainly states is the basis
of the right to bear arms). If you doubt this just read the second
amendment. It won’t take much of your time because it’s only one
sentence long.

Other mind tricks used to scare you: The “slippery slope” argument is
the standard choice for anyone with a losing case on the merits. It
goes like this: If we regulate the access to automatic firearms or
“cop-killer” ammunition the next thing the evil government will do is
take away your hunting rifle. Apply the same logic to setting the
driving age at 16. What’s to stop them from lowering it to 9? Therefore
there should be no driving age restriction. Logical, but absurd.

Ask yourself who benefits if you feel you need a gun to protect
yourself. People who sell guns will sell more of them if they sell more
fear. And people who are afraid want you to feel the same way. If you
feel constantly under threat, then that slow simmering anxiety will soon
become normal to you. Just replace it with the pleasure of holding a
gun. You’ll feel so in control. It’s a persuasive reason for owning a
gun.

Personally, I don’t share those fears. And the pleasure part has always seemed a bit creepy to me.

Wayne LaPierre decided to try to divert calls for gun control by blaming decades-old pop culture ephemera like Mortal Combat and American Psycho
for recent mass gun killings. And after I hit publish on that post, the
Hollywood Reporter pointed out an even more pointed hypocrisy: the NRA
may hope that everyone blames media violence for inspiring killings,
rather than guns for being the instruments of them, but it’s had multiple exhibits celebrating famous movie weapons at its National Firearms Museum, and apparently has no immediate plans to take the current one down.

Media Matters for America, jumping on the case, grabbed an amazing video
of Phil Schreier, the curator of the NRA Museum, talking about the
exhibit, which has since been deleted from the NRA’s YouTube feed:

"wishing that we too could be like our matinee idols." Is that a riot, or what? When they think no one's lookin', they really let their guard down, don't they?

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Yes, the Swiss do have gun crime. There was the 27 Sep 2001 Mass shooting in the Zug Parliament.

Today, Five people were shot in the village of Daillon in Valais canton with three deaths.

This will call into question Switzerland's relatively liberal gun laws (by European Standards).

More on this incident here.Here is a list of some of the most serious violent crimes involving firearms in Switzerland from this story:

24th May 2011: In Schafhausen BE the 35-year-old Swiss tenants shoots in eviction from housing a 39-year-old policeman with his army pistol. Another policeman he injured his arm. The offender was released on medical grounds from the army, but was not properly disarmed.

8th September 2010: The 67-year-old Hans Peter Bieler Kneubühl resisting the eviction of his house and barricaded himself inside. When police anrückt, he shoots at a policeman and seriously wounded him. The pensioner has a whole arsenal of weapons but no firearms license.

30th April 2006: The former skier Corinne Rey-Bellet and her younger brother Alain in Les Crosets VS from estranged husband shot himself with his service pistol. Then the offender commits suicide.

29th March 2004: A 43-year-old farmer in Escholzmatt LU shoots his wife, his brother, his wife and the social director. Then he directed himself Tathintergrund were family problems.

27th September 2001: The 57-year-old Friedrich Leibacher shoots out of anger at the authorities in the Zug cantonal parliament 14 people with an assault rifle and a pump action shotgun, then he shoots himself

Second April 1993: A 54-year-old employee of the Berne Bedag computer science at work runs amok and shoots two people before killing himself. Apparently he had family problems and difficulties at work.

31st August 1990: An engaging in financial difficulties Zurich Bijoutier shoots in a shooting spree in Zurich and Rickenbach TG five people, including his wife and two children. He also wounded four people before killing himself.

16th April 1986: The head of the City of Zurich Building Inspection, Günther Tschanun shoots, after tensions at work in the Zurich building department four colleagues and wounded a fifth. He is sentenced to 20 years in prison.

But the AR-15 is not ideal for the hunting and home-defense uses that
the NRA’s Keene cited today. Though it can be used for hunting, the
AR-15 isn’t really a hunting rifle. Its standard .223 caliber ammunition
doesn’t offer much stopping power for anything other than small game.
Hunters themselves find the rifle controversial, with some arguing
AR-15-style rifles empower sloppy, “spray and pray” hunters to waste
ammunition. As one hunter put it in the comments section of an article
on americanhunter.org, “I served in the military and the M16A2/M4 was
the weapon I used for 20 years. It is first and foremost designed as an
assault weapon platform, no matter what the spin. A hunter does not need
a semi-automatic rifle to hunt, if he does he sucks, and should go play
video games. I see more men running around the bush all cammo'd up with
assault vests and face paint with tricked out AR's. These are not
hunters but wannabe weekend warriors.”

In terms of repelling a home invasion—which is what most people mean
when they talk about home defense—an AR-15-style rifle is probably less
useful than a handgun. The AR-15 is a long gun, and can be tough to
maneuver in tight quarters. When you shoot it, it’ll
overpenetrate—sending bullets through the walls of your house and
possibly into the walls of your neighbor’s house.

Houston County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a report of an
accidental shooting that occurred Dec. 29 or 30 in the Grapeland area.
Officials said a 9-year-old boy was shot in the arm.

HCSO deputies went to the East Texas Medical Center Crockett ER to investigate after a boy was brought in with a gunshot wound.

Chief Deputy Gary Shearer of the Houston County Sheriff's Department
said two unsupervised boys were hunting in the woods with a .410 shotgun
when the incident occurred. Somehow, the 9-year-old boy holding the
shotgun fell, and the weapon fired. The other boy, who had been walking
in front of him, was shot in the arm.

Shearer said there was no indication of foul play and that the case has been ruled an accidental shooting.

Even many gun rights activists would agree, I think, that 9 years old is a bit young to be hunting unsupervised.

The responsible adults should be held accountable for this. Don't you think so?

According to the police report, the shooting appeared to have
occurred at a couch in the downstairs portion of the residence. SCSO
Public Information Officer Leslie Earhart says Flanary was showing his
friend a 16-gauge shotgun when it inadvertently fired.

Detectives responded to the home and hospital to speak with witnesses
and the victim. Flanary allegedly had a strong odor of alcohol, while a
pat down located a small baggy of marijuana in his back pocket.

Flanary was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment,
possession of a gun while under the influence, simple possession of
marijuana and public intoxication. He was jailed at the Sullivan County
Justice Center and released after posting $5,000 bond.

You know what they do for there, right? They plea bargain the whole thing down to disorderly conduct and retain the gun rights.

Gun negligence is not taken seriously enough. Even the so-called liberal media keeps saying things like "it inadvertently fired," as if it weren't the negligent gun owner's fault.

The
Pasco County Sheriff's Office reports that 54-year-old Charles Martin
Jones and 51-year-old Michael Edward McCord were traveling along a rural
road Saturday night when they pulled over to shoot the deer, which they
left dead by the road.

The men traveled several more miles before throwing the rifle out the window.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that a deputy caught up to the pair and arrested them.Jones was charged with taking wildlife on a road.

McCord was charged with willful waste of wildlife, taking wildlife on a road and discharging a firearm in public.

Don't worry. They'll get a slap on the wrist and be right back in business.

The Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
(NCIPC) has published numerous studies analyzing firearms-related
deaths and injuries data, but over the last 16 years, the NCIPC hasn’t
conducted a single study exploring why such acts of violence take place.The reason, several former CDC directors say, is because pro-gun
lobbyists made the topic of gun violence research forbidden through
several measures adopted in the mid 1990s.

In 1996, several legislators co-sponsored an amendment that would cut
the CDC’s budget, with a House Appropriations Committee adopting an
additional amendment that prohibited CDC funding “to advocate or promote
gun control.” Eventually, $2.6 million was removed from the CDC’s
budget — the exact amount that the NCIPC spent on firearms injuries
studies a year prior.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has long been critical of the
CDC, with NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre recently telling
the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) that he believed the agency was promoting a political agenda through the NCIPC in 1995.

Other gun proponents agreed. Former Georgian congressman Bob Barr — a
member of the NRA board — said that firearms violence is “nothing CDC
should be involved in.”

“It has nothing to do with health,” he is quoted by the AJC. “I don’t
think when the CDC was created there would by any contemplation that
they would be studying firearms as a health issue.”

Several ex-CDC directors, however, claim that gun lobbyists have
effectively eliminated any possibility of meaningful firearms research
studies being conducted today, with former director of NCIPC Mark
Rosenberg going as far as to say that “the scientific community has been
terrorized by the NRA.

We'll need to fight military-style fire with military fire. It won't
be enough to stick one or even three uniformed police officers at the
front doors of our schools with their conventional, .40 caliber pistols
and call that sufficient protection. Just ask yourself: In a duel
between you and this anonymous "bad guy," only one of you can have the
100-round assault rifle, the other gets the 13-round handgun; which
weapon would you choose?

We need James Holmes,
SWAT Team-style gear, complete with helmets, neck protectors,
bullet-proof vests, helmets, shields and a little tear gas for good
measure. We need throat and groin protectors, ballistic leggings and gas
masks. We have to eliminate any weak spots -- any at all that can be
exploited in an indiscriminate spray of bullets, and essentially be
prepared to turn an elementary school lobby into a war zone rivaling
Baghdad faster than you can say "Bushmaster."

My heart breaks for the possible realization of LaPierre's proposals,
that the schoolhouse might not be safe as a direct result of its
"Firearm-Free Zone" status, and that our only solution to keep our
children safe is to strengthen the gun presence in our society, as I'm
sure LaPierre would agree, it's not just our schools that are targets
for such destruction.

As we saw in Aurora, Colo.,
there's danger in our movie theaters, the threat of violence looming by
the roads we drive along every day, should an assailant decide to use the cars passing by for target practice. Our parking lots are unsafe, our shopping malls, college campuses, temples, churches, grocery stores, pet shops, soup kitchens.

As LaPierre has made us hauntingly aware, anywhere that there is not a
gun presence, we are vulnerable, and yet the NRA, which has a real
voice in this debate, can only point blame elsewhere -- anywhere but
itself.

It refuses to acknowledge the hard truth of the matter, which is that
there are simply too many bad guys out there with much too easy access
to these high-caliber assault rifles.

Every year about 1,000 people in the U.S. are murdered by severely mentally ill people. Over 38,000 people in the United States die by suicide every year -- 90% of whom have a diagnosable mental illness.

Treatable mental illness destroys the lives of tens of millions of
families each year. The economic toll is enormous -- and mostly hidden.
Untreated mental illnesses in the U.S. costs more than $100 billion a
year in lost productivity according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.Control of handguns and assault rifles is a needed start. It is the low hanging fruit.

The pro-gun response is that we need to address the mental health issues INSTEAD of doing something about the gun availability.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Bennettsville Police were called to a home on Fayetteville Avenue, December 30, for an eight year boy who was shot.

LT. Larry Turner said the child was accidentally by a family member.
The child was taken by ambulance to Marlboro Park Hospital where he was
later pronounced dead.

Marlboro County Coroner Tim Brown, identified the child as Easton
Brudger, from Clio. He said Brudger was visiting his father in
Bennettsville. He died from a single gunshot wound to the abdomen.

No charges have been filed yet by the Bennettsville Police Department
and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. The investigation
continues.

What kind of investigation does it take to determine who was responsible and to charge them? It takes about an hour. Belaboring it with a lengthy investigation and the possibility of no charges because it was just an accident is a disgrace.

Harriet Deison, 65, of Dallas was found
dead in her Lexus sedan near McClelland Gun Shop. Witnesses told police
they heard two shots and saw smoke coming out of the car around 2:15
p.m.

Police think Deison shot herself with the pistol she had just
purchased. The Dallas County medical examiner’s office has ruled the death a suicide.ATF
spokesman Andrew Young said that in all such situations, the ATF
reviews the shop’s procedures and the application the customer completed
before the purchase. He estimated that the application process and
background check take about 20 minutes.

Before buying a gun at a
store, a customer must fill out a form with personal information, show a
government-issued ID and pass a background check based on a national
directory called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

“At
that point, if the background check is passed, they buy a gun and walk
out with a gun,” Young said. There is no waiting period in Texas, he
said.

Young said the ATF discourages gun dealers from selling a
firearm if a customer seems “under duress,” intoxicated or mentally
unstable. “We recommend during the application process if there’s
anything that seems wrong or illogical, don’t do the sale. It’s not
worth the small amount of profit.”

What gun control law would have prevented this, the gun-rights folks often ask. Well, obviously a waiting period before collecting the newly bought gun very well might have prevented this tragedy. That's number 4 on the list of proper gun control laws. Also, if the law did a bit more than "DISCOURAGE gun dealers from selling a
firearm if a customer seems “under duress,” intoxicated or mentally
unstable," this incident might have been avoided. I don't believe a person who is five minutes away from blowing their brains out appears normal.

The pro-gun guys, inspired by their leader, Wayne La Pierre, have been doubling down on one of their favorite ploys. They talk about ways to reduce gun violence, placing armed guards in schools, for example, INSTEAD of doing something about gun availability.

They will do or say anything to deflect attention from that first main problem.

Fr. Pfleger, on the other hand, said it nicely. We need to work on all aspects of the problem, INCLUDING gun availability.

Murfreesboro attorney Guy Dotson Jr. remained in critical condition
at Vanderbilt University Medical Center Saturday after an accidental
shooting while cleaning a gun.

According
to the Murfreesboro Police Department incident report, police were
called to his residence at 1504 Monticello Court around 10 p.m. Thursday
and found Dotson lying on his bedroom floor where he fell after
suffering a gunshot wound to his abdomen. He told police he was going to
clean the pistol when it accidentally discharged.

Police
noted that he had been struck in the right side of his abdomen and the
bullet exited his middle back. First aid was started immediately until
EMS and first responders could arrive.

I sure hope this isn't our friend who calls himself Tennesseean. He's the only lawyer I know from Tennessee.

If we hear from him later today I'd like to ask what he thinks about my one strike you're out suggestion. What's the difference between the guy who forgets there's a round in the chamber and kills a kid, the guy who shoots himself in the stomach and the guy who puts a round into the floor?

A gruesome holiday season exercise: Think of some firearms and
accessories that might have added to the body counts of Aurora and
Newtown. More starkly, imagine the means by which coming Auroras and
Newtowns will be made more deadly.

The exercise starts with a
militarized baseline, as both shooters unloaded designed-for-damage
rounds from high-capacity magazines loaded into assault rifles.
Improving their killing efficiency would require one of two things: the
ability to shoot more bullets faster, or more time. A fully automatic
machine gun would provide the first. More minutes to hunt, meanwhile,
might be gained by employing a noise suppressor, those metallic tubes
better known as silencers. By muffling the noise generated with every
shot by sonic booms and gas release, a silencer would provide a new
degree of intimacy for public mass murder, delaying by crucial seconds
or minutes the moment when someone calls the police after overhearing
strange bangs coming from Theater 4 or Classroom D. The same qualities
that make silencers the accessory of choice for targeted assassination
offer advantages to the armed psychopath set on indiscriminate mass
murder.

The article provides a fascinating history of suppressors. I'm now wondering if I have to abandon one of the only exceptions I've had about gun control laws I support. What do you think?

from an op-ed in USA Today by Ed Tinsley, former commissioner of Lewis and Clark County in Montana.

I am a proud gun owner and, as such, I call on our nation to stand up
and demand that our leaders tackle gun violence in this country.
Specifically, the president and Congress must take up the question of
whether assault weapons and high-capacity magazines have a place on our
streets and in our homes.This conversation will no doubt raise
the hackles of those who disavow even the most minor regulations on
their guns or ammunition. They'll say the government is infringing on
their rights yet again.Let them tell that to the grieving parents in Newtown who just buried their children.The
government regulates the amount of shells I can have in my shotgun when
hunting waterfowl. It regulates the number of beers I can have at a
local microbrewery. It determines whether or not I can talk on my cell
phone while operating a 4,000-pound vehicle on public streets.We
need certain laws in place to protect our health, safety and the welfare
of our citizens. Why then is it so difficult to reduce the number of
assault weapons that pose a threat to Americans everywhere?

Sunday, December 30, 2012

I cry but I can't buyYour Veteran's Day poppyIt don't get me highIt can only make me cryIt can never grow anotherSon like the one who warmed me my daysAfter rain and warmed my breathMy life's bloodScreamin' empty she crysIt don't get me highIt can only make me cryYour Veteran's Day poppy.

Devotees of the Chinese Jui Tui Shrine take part in a street procession
marking the annual Vegetarian Festival in the southern town of Phuket on
October 21, 2012. During the festival, which begins on the first
evening of the ninth lunar month and lasts nine days, religious devotees
slash themselves with swords, pierce their cheeks with sharp objects
and commit other painful acts to purify themselves, taking on the sins
of the community. (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/Getty Images)

Intending
to restore order, one of the first things the new lawmen did was to
initiate a "Deadline” north of the railroad yards on Front Street to
keep the commercial part of the city quiet. On the north side, the city
passed an ordinance that guns could not be worn or carried. On the south
side of the "deadline”, those who supported the lawlessness continued
to operate as usual, with a host of saloons, brothels, and frequent gunfights. The expression "Red Light District” was coined in Dodge City
when the train masters took their red caboose lanterns with them when
they visited the town’s brothels. The gun-toting rule was in effect
around the clock and anyone wearing a gun was immediately jailed. Soon, Dodge City jail was filled.

Around 1:40 p.m., New York State
Police, Webster Police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives descended on the home where Dawn Nguyen and her
mother, Dawn Welsher, were staying. Nguyen was taken out of the home in
handcuffs.Senior Investigator James Newell of the state police said Nguyen was charged with offering a false instrument for filing.Nguyen
is also facing federal charges for allegedly lying about the purchase
of the semiautomatic .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, equipped with a
combat-style flash suppressor, and the .12-gauge Mossberg shotgun used
in Monday's slayings of two first responders and the wounding of three
others. Nguyen is not connected to a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson
pistol also recovered.

U.S. Attorney William Hochul Jr. said at a 4
p.m. ET press conference that Nguyen bought the guns on June 6, 2010,
from a Gander Mountain store in Henrietta, south of Rochester. He said
William Spengler Jr., a former neighbor in Webster who ignited an
inferno and ambushed first responders before dawn Monday, picked out the
guns and Nguyen bought them.As as a convicted felon, Spengler
was banned from owning guns. He served 17 years in state prison for
killing his grandmother with a hammer in 1980. Nguyen lived next door to
Spengler for about five years, in the house where he killed his
grandmother."It is sometimes referred to acting as a 'straw purchaser' and that is exactly what today's complaint alleges," Hochul said.Hochul indicated that in his rambling suicide note, Spengler revealed how he got the guns.

Pro-gun folks often point out that straw purchasers can easily claim that the guns were stolen. Well, in this case that didn't work. Also it wouldn't work for the frequent or "professional" straw purchasers. I mean, how many times can you reasonably expect the police to believe your guns were stolen.

The National Rifle Association
and the firearms industry are locked and loaded in a mutually
beneficial financial relationship that funnels millions into the NRA's
coffers, yielding legislative triumphs on Capitol Hill that boost gun
sales.

The NRA's "Ring of Freedom" corporate donors list on its contributions website (www.nragive.com) reads like a Who's Who of gun, ammunition and ammunition magazine manufacturers, shooting-accessory providers and retailers.

Among them: Sturm, Ruger & Co., of the Southport section of
Fairfield; Smith & Wesson, of Springfield, Mass.; and Beretta USA, a
subsidiary of the Italian arms manufacturer.

The website shows that since 2005, corporations have given between
$19.8 million and $52.6 million -- the vast majority of that from the
firearms industry. Ruger said in a news release in April that it had
donated $1.2 million to the NRA in the past 12 months.

This information should be of interest to one of my Facebook antagonists who challenged me to provide a link to a remark I made about the gun manufacturers' support of the NRA. I ignored his comment because it's what the pro-gun guys often do, demand proof for things that are either obvious or for which there is no proof. In this case it was something obvious.